Help starting a computer repair business

[popsandfriends]

Hello,
I am 17 years old, and have been working on windows and mac machines all of my life. I can do just about everything from hardware installs, to software reinstalls and virus cleaning. I live in a small town in maine, but the people around here are not very computer literate. There are two computer repair businesses in the area, but, the first charges almost 80$/h and the second doesnt do any mac repairs. I would be going in this alone (sole proprietorship), and would probably use a DBA. I know this job has a certain level of liability I have to watch out for though. Basically, I need startup help so that I can wake up tomorrow, make a plan based on what I gather here, and take this week to start this business up. Any help is appreciated!

Thanks,
Hunter

[cocaine]

urm a website, where people can get more information on who you are, past experiences

i own entrepreneurhosting.com if you need any. 10.00GBP one time payment

[thinkcomp]

Hunter,

Feel free to send me an e-mail at aarong@thinkcomputer.com. I was in your position six years ago--I'm 23 now, so I can try to give you some advice.

Aaron

[Malog]

Wake up tomorrow and start kid, no point thinking about it, make a site, get business cards, get some flyers in local shops, start a database, post some rubbish in local forums and off you go.

Post your name to as many free business directories as you can.

Google "free templates", I made the mistake of trying to create a full site on my own, very satisfying but in the end lacked that special something, ended up with this grabbed free images from a few stock photo sites and just added some content.

I have been doing ok for only being up and running for about 3 months and as long as you provide a good service and cut out the geeky crap showing off how much you know about the latest Core2Duo, Crossfire PCI-E x16 Lanes capable of 100Mb per sec then you wont do too bad.

Great Service is probably the most important thing, if you return a PC with just basic windows installed after a HDD failure then anyone can do that, but if you return it with bells and whistles on then they are much more impressed and will pass your name on, eg - Laptop repair for 16yr old Kid - Firewall - Antivirus - Spyware - MSN Live Messenger - Freeware AlZip - Limewire - Firefox - CCleaner.

Create an assistance login for Live Messenger, you can then connect to customers via Remote Assistance when they are in trouble, this way they wont forget you in a hurry.

Give away a CD or DVD filled with good free software with every repair, just get some top rated stuff from freewarefiles or something like that.

Read Read Read - no doubt you will come across someone who is a fan of the latest Petraflop and can tell you the votage requirement for compaq Imedia SDRAM is 3.3 volts - Yaaawn and give him a swift kick up the ring.

Give back a complete report of work you have done and provide a recommendation list for upgrades, keeping system free of the shite that is usually dumped on HDD when browsing, when and how to run Virus - Spyware scans that sort of thing.

Call everyone back a day or two after you return system and make sure everything is OK, if you make them happy then they dont forget that.

Good luck kiddo !!

[verso]

Wake up tomorrow and start kid, no point thinking about it, make a site, get business cards, get some flyers in local shops, start a database, post some rubbish in local forums and off you go.

I have to agree with that. Some people get so bogged down in planning that the rubber never meets the road.

BUT - make sure to watch your legal p's and q's. Getting a business license is very easy to do (you can probably do it all from your state website). Chances are, you can do all of your taxes online too. Look at this article... I already found Maine's site for you.

Good luck.

[monaarts]

The only thing I can think of is can you legally own a business name at 17? I know it sounds stupid but I don't know if you actually can or not. I would try for it though. Also, are you planning on opening a store or just work out of your house? Let me know!


-Joe

[popsandfriends]

I would be working on this out of my home

[monaarts]

Okay.. then maybe you can just get flyers and business cards made up. Goto local businesses that may have computers and give them a couple business cards. Maybe post a flyer in your local grocery store or convenient store. Goto retirement communities and hand out the flyers... Old people normally know nothing about computers so this might be a good market for you. Do what you think is best man, enjoy it and have fun doing it!


-Joe

[Mad Muppet]

just get stuck in with it, advetise as much as you can its good that many people know very much about computers, do good service and dont rip people of like you competitors and you should get a good client base.

monaarts, how many oap homes have you been to where they have computers? my grandparents dont have a clue what they are let alone own one.

[monaarts]

Mad Muppet.. A lot of older people don't have computers, however alot do. And those that DO normally don't know how to do anything beyond the ordinary with then. They use them mainly for their children or grandchildren. See, alot of mid aged people (30-40) who have computers know how to do basics with them. So I just think that the older market would be good, because most dont know anything about them.

-Joe

[popsandfriends]

Just a few questions while I am crafting my plan. I am very fluent in macintosh computers, but can I say that I repair them? Or Do I need to be an Apple Authorized service provider?

Should I say that I will do (repairs, onsite, custom PC) with businesses or offices? Or should I leave that to the bigger companies to do.r

Also, after researching the rates for other computer places in the surrounding towns, I have figured that anything under $50 flat rate an hour would be sufficient. Is that a good price?


Thanks,
Hunter

[kbusi]

My brother owns and runs tampatronics. He's in college and just drives to people's houses and does repair. He charges people based on service and makes sure it's much lower than the traditional maintanence and repair.
Just start getting clients by helping people out. Give them little bit of info free and then charge them for core services.
My brother doesn't do any advertising. He gets referrals from other customers who recommend him.
You can start a sole proprietorship without any license. All you do is hang a sign out and you're in business.

[kbusi]

Keep your prices low initially. As low as you can afford to keep them. Since your overhead is low, it shouldn't be a problem.
Once you have loyal customer base, people who prefer your services, you can gradually raise the price over time, based on the value you provide them.
My brother from tampatronics charges $40/hour similar to a mechanic.

Price is a psychological point. So if you decide to charge $50, i'll post that as $49.95.

One other thing i noticed is...if you're a nice person and make people not feel dumb when it comes to computers, they'll like you a lot more. So spend a lot of time listening to the customer, even if you already know from the first 3 words what the problem is.

[buynick]

Best of luck to you, there is always more room for PC and Mac experts in this world. I suggest going door-to-door in your neighborhood, to people you know, and letting them know of your service, ask for referrals from them and your family. I definately suggest setting up a simple website, kind of a resume of what you know how to do. You can get 250 free business cards from http://www.buynick.com/links/vistaprint.htm too. I did this for a while when I was your age, and it was a great learning opportunity for later in life.

[buynick]

p.s. I also formed an eBay tutoring service off of this business, you might want to look into doing that as well. People always have stuff they want to get rid of and you could either do it as consignment (sell it for them and keep a percentage), or charge a fee to teach them how to do it themselves.